Played fucking Catan last night.
That fucking game. I was sitting at 9 points for half the game session. Then other people were. Nobody could get to ten points.
At one point, I had everything I needed. Then I got robbered.
The game lasted like two hours. In the end, we were checking each turn to see if the person could just win. Eventually, with a little help, I could just win.
Christ. It was fun for the first half hour to hour, but not the second hour.
I blame myself: I was facilitating, and went for all and only hard points. f my initial strategy had worked, it would have been quick game.
Alas. That's what I get for trying to show off.
Much prefer: Carc, Seven Wonders, Between Two Cities. These all have something in common: the game has a time limit.
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I love Catan, but I get that not everyone loves the random. I don't remember ever being in a game which lasted more than an hour though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Carcassonne. It doesn't entertain me. Something about the tactics of planning a city or farm or road. It's quite repetitive? No surprises.
Seven Wonders is fantastic. Have you played Sushi Go? It's the same game but simpler. I used to play it with my daughter when she was 4, and we still play it now two years later.
I don't know the other game you mentioned.
Between Two Cities, Brian Ashford, is like a third generation version of Catan. It has the following features:
ReplyDelete-- Coopetition. You each build two cities, sharing with your neighbors!
-- Simultaneous play. Very little downtime!
-- Easy scoring, and the best damn score board I've ever seen.
-- Specific number of turns
-- Easy for newbies.
-- An expansion that makes the game more fun, rather than a pain filled murder fest.
Sounds good.
ReplyDeleteHave you played Machi Koro? I haven't played it a lot but I have enjoyed it so far. Competitive and long to play. It's all about balancing your risks to the random productivity of your cities.
Yep! That's another third generation, in my personal nomenclature!
ReplyDeleteUnlike Catan, once you've built some victory points they can't go away.
The dice HATE me. I'm a jinx every time I play that game.
ReplyDeleteOnce, at camp, I quit a game of catan before it was over. I pointed out how, due to my position on the board, the was no possible way of me winning, and I walked away. Maybe that was a jerk move, but that game was dragging on, and if there is not even the possibility of winning, why play?
ReplyDeleteBack when we lived in Ottawa, we used to meet up with another couple at a goth club to play catan on a regular basis. This was always fun. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe because we were evenly matched. Maybe because we didn't drag our feet on making every little decision. Maybe because the music was good and some of the tiles glow under black light.
I wish I could figure out the "trick" to making catan fun. Because when it is, it is. But it's rarely the first game I reach for.
Jule Ann Wakeman The starting layout is important. If the desert is not on the coast during a four player game the board will very quickly feel overcrowded.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem I've seen is when people ignore that the numbers should be laid out in a particular order. Of they are laid out randomly the game becomes the opposite of fun.
Finally it is important to try and identify which resources will be scarce in each game and try and set up contingencies for that. Often it's Brick that is scarce, but if Wheat or Ore are scarce that can slow down the end game a lot. Experienced players will try to account for these things right from the start but new players often won't know that they should be planning that far ahead.
Of course when the dice start rolling anything can happen and if you get a game where a six or and eight never comes up it can mess up everybody's plan.
Brian Ashford our numbers were in order. We used the starting grid as per the game. It took 2.5 fucking hours. I know I started with all resources.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is folks tried to do too much trading. So every turn was "wood for sheep? Does ANYBODY HAVE WOOD? You? You? You?"
William Nichols Brian Ashford We always set the numbers out in order, too. We will occasionally make one tile swap after set-up if the layout is too awkward, on consensus.
ReplyDeleteI think William nailed it with trading, though. With the couple in Ottawa, we kept trading to a minimum. Our basic rule was that the active player made an offer, and, unless they were offering something that you actually needed, you declined. The trading phase was short. "I need X, and I can offer Y or Z. Anyone?" The answer was usually a quick no, sometimes a quick yes, and occasionally a specific counter-offer.